What, you think the iPad hitting Apple stores on Easter Weekend is a mere coincidence?

Nope. The media gods have conspired. Sure, the venerable Wired magazine would be all over it. And of course Laptop mag would hype the inevitable if not wholly simplistic "iPAD v. NETBOOK" war. But there's a reason why the iPad and Steve Jobs were on the cover of not just Time magazine ("Inside Steve's Pad") but also Newsweek, with this breathless, omniscient headline: "What's So Great About The iPad? Everything. How Steve Jobs Will Revolutionize Reading, Watching, Computing, Gaming -- And Silicon Valley." The iPad has the Obama touch. As the noted media columnist Howard Kurtz pointed out: "When was the last time that Time and Newsweek went with the same cover subject whose name wasn't Obama?"

The critics debunking the media industry's euphoria about the iPad are correct: It won't save media.

From the perspective of the old media industry, the most important line in Walt Mossberg's breathless review of the iPad was this:

The Web browser also works beautifully, and takes advantage of the big screen to show full pages and cut down on scrolling. It even now has a bookmarks bar at the top.Sigue

Here Is Why The iPad Won't Save The Magazine Industry

Magazine industry advertising revenue declined an average of 12% the past 2 years (18% in 2009) so most magazines need to reverse revenue declines while managing costs or face the real prospect of going out of business if the bleeding continues.

Some believe the iPad will enable magazines to reverse course in the near-term, but we believe these expectations are way off the mark. In particular:Sigue

"I don't know where their canard came from that the iPad was going to save old media," Murray said. "You have these apps, but you also have a web browser. So I don't see how any newspaper that is giving its content away for free on the web is going to be saved by the iPad because the iPad makes it easier to access that free content."Sigue